Customer Reviews

Integrated Chinese, Level 1, Part 2: Textbook, Simplified Characters, Second Edition (Chinese Edition)

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I purchased the level 1 part 1 traditional book and was happy with that purchase. However, I wanted to start learning the simplified characters and had seen the level 1, part 1 simplified first edition and liked THAT, so thought that the second edition would be fine....WRONG. The biggest complaint is that in the level 1, part 2, unlike part 1, the characters are entirely too small so that not only is recognition difficult but trying to write them out is almost impossible for the more complicated characters requiring 5 or more strokes.

Another pet peeve is that some chapters have cartoons that follow the dialogues, which is fine, but the characters in the cartoons are TRADITIONAL and NOT Simplified....! WHat's up with that?!

Additionally, I purchased the 4 cd's that accompany the book at a cost of almost $50 and they are of extremely poor quality. You can tell that someone has overlaped the original recordings and on top of that, in many cases, the additions do not follow the BOOK! There is additional vocabulary on the cd's for some chapters, and the vocabulary is NOT in the book! They clearly either rushed this second edition or did a very poor editing job.

I say check out OTHER resources before thinking about this book.

It took 2 weeks and the shipment is still on the way. Not sure if it ever will make it to my home. It is rrrrrrreallllly slow!